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| The Record is filled with African-American news this month. |
Get it while it's hot off the presses.
News of African-Americans dominates the front page, and a few of them even make an appearance today in The Record on the Road -- the usually lily white photo feature in Travel.
Hey, Editors Francis Scandale and Deirdre Sykes, will all this attention to black news end when Black History Month concludes in eight days?
Two weeks after reporting census data showing significant drops in North Jersey's black population, Staff Writer Dave Sheingold of The Record of Woodland Park is back today with a story explaining the trend.
He discusses Hackensack and Teaneck, Passaic city and Paterson, but his major focus is on Englewood, where the African-American population dropped 15.3% from 2000-10. He even interviews a Jamaican restaurant owner in Teaneck, but errs in listing one of his dishes, ackee and salt fish, which he calls "ackee fish."
Sheingold reports financial reasons are prompting blacks to move to the South. He doesn't mention other factors, such as Englewood's segregated elementary and middle schools.
The lead A-1 story today is about the coming free-for-all over a new state budget between Governor Christie and the Legislature. A Cliffview Pilot.com editorial portrays the Republican governor as another in a long line of union haters: Christie is a wanna-be union buster
Size matters
A story on A-3 is a first -- the first full discussion of Christie's weight I've seen since he took office more than a year ago. A second piece on Page O-2, an Opinion column by a Washington Post staffer, says the governor makes fat jokes at his own expense.
The news story reports Christie has been working out with a trainer and losing weight. Neither his overall weight or how much he has lost is listed. The AP story says the governor is losing weight so he can "be around" for his children, not that he's about to launch a campaign against the obesity epidemic.
I don't know how Business section Staff Writer Joan Verdon chose attorney Louis Pashman of Pashman Stein in Hackensack for one of her promotional Q&As (B-6), but his firm has represented and profited handsomely from fees paid by North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, in an age-discrimination suit and other legal matters.
Isn't this a major conflict? Did the paper get a preferential rate for legal representation or is it paying part of its fees with this lavish spread on Pashman, the son of a New Jersey Supreme Court justice?
Isn't this a major conflict? Did the paper get a preferential rate for legal representation or is it paying part of its fees with this lavish spread on Pashman, the son of a New Jersey Supreme Court justice?
Get rid of minorities
An editorial on O-2 today calls for the ouster of Associate Supreme Court Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto -- not surprising from a newsroom that has gotten rid of black and Hispanic staffers.
The editorial doesn't even mention that John Wallace was the only African-American member of the state's high court when Christie booted him. Or that Rivera-Soto is the only Hispanic on the court.
Best comes in last
In Better Living, Cheeburger, Cheeburger is the only one of the fancy new burger joints to use antibiotic- and hormone-free beef, so why does Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung list it last in her column, The Corner Table (F-1)?
It's likely because of the owner's policy of posting photos of customers who finish large burgers:
"Now it's one thing to reward adults for stuffing their face, but I winced when I saw that children get their pictures on the wall if they finish a half-pound burger. Talk about crossing the line."
How rich. This comes from an adult journalist who is rewarded with a big salary and repayment for all the food she stuffs into her face, and whose mindless obsession for dessert sets a poor example for her own child.
I think you may be attributing a copy desk error to Mr. Sheingold. The Record copy desk is notorious for "word trimming" to make stories fit, and it's hardly inconceivable that in order to pick up an extra line, the worldly copy editor handling the story decided to remove the salt from the dish, so that ackee and salt fish would become ackee fish. What do you think? Of course it would be nice to see a mea culpa from an anonymous copy editor, or even an anonymous Mr. Sheingold if that should be the case, further explicating the erroneous appelation.
ReplyDeleteSomething to think about.
ReplyDeleteBut I think the reporter erred, couldn't read his notes or misunderstood.
It's also a possibility the restaurant lists the dish that way, though I have never encountered that use here or in Jamaica.
Word trimming??? Could the publisher of The Record possibly have told its writers/reporters to limit there wording in stories to cut down on newsprint paper costs to save money on the production of The Record?
ReplyDeleteIs TRUE REPORTING a fading business,or is a newspaper now just pure advertisment with BITS and PIECES of the TRUTH to save money?
If anything, stories and columns are often too long to fill space left by staffers who do little or nothing.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Rivera Soto the guy who won't vote on matters brought to the court? Why should he be allowed to serve?
ReplyDeleteDid Joan Verdon mention that when Al Franken leaves the Senate he's been invited to join the law firm of Pashman Stein? They're even going to make him a partner and rename it Franken Stein.
ReplyDeleteRivera-Soto objected to how the vacancy was filled after the governor denied tenure to the only African-American on the court. Maybe he was objecting to the removal of the only black on the court without saying so.
ReplyDeleteA law firm that can get a newspaper to do its will would be a Frankenstein. Why don't you direct your question to Jennifer A. Borg, vice president and general counsel of North Jersey Media Group?
Cheeburger, Cheeburger ... dang! Now you've got me craving a Cheeseburger. Look out, McDonald's, here I come!
ReplyDelete